My life is more than a little crazy as I have two time-consuming hobbies, but being recently retired I hope to have more time for both. I've been showing dogs since 1967, but about 10 years ago decided to cut back on dogs and dog-related activities and add an "easy" hobby, like a tank of fish. I STILL breed and show dogs, but many tanks later I also keep a variety of aquarium fish. Hiking,gardening, writing, reading, cooking, and (especially) dining out are also favorite activities.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Backsliding

Day 2, Waukesha weekend. This has traditionally been one of my favorite show weekends, and one we rarely miss. It's always hot and humid, but judges, entries and shopping are normally good and we've picked up lots of majors and finished a number of dogs here over the years.

The judging panel was satisfactory this year, so Gemma and Fern were entered and we were delighted to find the entry included a 4 point major in bitches and 6 Specials - fun! Things went downhill from there when Jess developed cellulitis in her leg from a bad reaction and subsequent infection from some kind of plant - like Poison Ivy on steroids. Gemma was put out of commission too, when one of her housemates (a mixed breed rescue) punched a few holes in her. Then Fern got a wire In the eye (long story) but after a BIG scare, it turned out to be a relatively minor concern and I decided to make the trip anyway. With such a nice entry there was sure to be out of towners to chat with, Fern had shown well the previous weekend, Groups and BiS are always competitive, and I needed to purchase some supplies from vendors who are always at those shows.

Wrong on all counts! Cold and windy, overall show entry was way down, vendors were down, Fern showed like an ass, half the entry (and all the winners) were with handlers (which is really taking a lot of the fun out of dog shows), and the Groups were boring. What a disappointment!

A nice lunch with a group of Dal friends was fun, the collar guy was there so I ordered a new collar for Argus, and one of the stands had the 16 inch chain collar I wanted for Fern. That's about it. Nice motel too, though it represents money I could have saved had I stayed home.

Fern's ring behavior was a combination of cold wet grass, wind, 8:00 judging, but mostly bad judgement on my part. "Bad Sue, bad, dumb Sue.". How much had we practiced stacking and gaiting in the previous two weeks? Not at all. Did I get to the show in time to work her? Did I take her for a long walk to settle her down? Did I stand with her in the ring area for long enough? Nope to all of that.

I can't do much about the weather today, but Fern and I put in a lot of work yesterday and we'll do more of it today. She stacked fine yesterday and was solid on the exam, but her feet rarely touched the ground when she gaited. Hopefully we got that problem resolved. We'll see. Maybe she only shows well outdoors when it's hot! Hope not